Recall campaigners pledge river plunge

SIGNATURES WANTED:Tamsui River was nominated as the body of water leaders of Constitution 133 Alliance promised to jump into if they collected 5,000 more names

By Chris Wang / Staff reporter

Constitution 133 Alliance cofounder Neil Peng, right, and film director Ko I-cheng speak at a press conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday to announce the progress in the group’s recall campaign.

Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times

Leaders of a recall campaign against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) said that if the remaining 5,000 signatures are collected for the recall proposal to be put to a referendum, they would jump into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in celebration.

Award-winning writer Neil Peng (馮光遠), co-founder of the Constitution 133 Alliance, posted the idea on Facebook and his blog on Monday to publicize the campaign’s push to collect the 5,000 more signatures that are needed to meet the requirements of the second phase of the recall process.

The signatures have to be submitted by Saturday.

Academia Sinica research fellow Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), one of the leaders of the alliance, wrote in response on Facebook that he would accompany Peng if the goal is achieved.

“[Peng] is 20 years older than me. I will not let him do it alone,” Huang wrote.

At a press conference yesterday, Peng and film director Ko I-cheng (柯一正) called for the constituents in Wu’s electorate — New Taipei City’s (新北市) first district, which includes Sanjhih (三芝), Shihmen (石門), Tamsui (淡水), Bali (八里), Linkou (林口) and Taishan (泰山) districts — to sign the petition.

“It’s time to take back our right to recall, which has been lost for far too long,” Peng said.

The alliance initiated the campaign in August last year to recall Wu, who it said was committed to partisan voting and ignored public opinion in the legislature.

On Dec. 26 last year it completed the first phase of the recall process by submitting about 6,400 signatures, representing 2 percent of the electorate, as required by the Central Election Commission (CEC).

The 30-day second phase began on Jan. 2 and is set to end on the third day of the six-day Lunar New Year holiday, which prompted the alliance to accuse the CEC of trying to hinder the recall effort.